How To Go For The Gold With A Team-Based Hiring Approach

With the medals handed out and the games concluded, we can take a look back at the months and years leading to the Olympic games. Top athletes selected to represent each country’s Olympic team were picked from the best, after many try-outs and judging competitions. Based on the toughest criteria, these decisions were a result of input from many people involved in the process to make sure that the best possible decisions were made.

If your company really wants to go for the gold, one way to help ensure an Olympic level of performance and quality is to take a team-based approach to hiring. In other words, involve the team in all aspects of the hiring process. A team-based hiring process creates an empowering culture in which the traditional hierarchical order is less present. With a more lateral structure, the team culture is provided with a greater sense of camaraderie that strengthens the inner workings of the team.

If you want an Olympic quality hiring team for your company, here are five guidelines to follow:

1.Collaborate. To work as a team in all areas of hiring, a cloud-based recruitment management system can provide an easy way for your team to streamline recruitment tasks and stay in the know about the current status of multiple recruiting activities. In the real business world, it is unlikely that all team members will be able to attend every meeting at the same time. However, when collaborating via a next-gen cloud-based platform, sharing notes and managing the workflow in a collaborative environment makes it convenient for everyone to access, contribute or take action on the most recent information, at anytime and from wherever they are.

2. Communicate. As with any type of team work, the method and quality of communication is critical when using a team-based hiring approach. Each team member should be able to contribute by freely communicating their ideas and opinions about candidates and how to best facilitate the hiring process. Your team should also be comfortable in assigning tasks to each other and providing honest and constructive feedback to one another. When tasks are assigned in a collaborative environment, people are likely to complete their assigned tasks promptly as other peoples tasks may be depending on a timely conclusion of their own. In the case of conflicts, the team needs to be able to work together to resolve any issues. Without strong interpersonal skills, it will be a challenge for your team to collaborate on recruiting and other critical company activities.

3. Set standards. It goes without saying that everyone on your team should aim for hiring the best people for the organization. But that can mean different things to different people. All team members need to be clear about what the goals and expected outcomes are in every aspect of hiring. To keep everyone on the same page and avoid confusion, make the criteria for what you are looking for in each position easily available to everyone involved.

For example, a candidate’s resume may need to meet five of a list of eight requirements in order to move on to the next stage of hiring. By providing detailed guidelines, interview questions and list of criteria, you can help your team greatly in being most effective in the hiring process. As a result, your team will have a better sense for how each candidate’s skills and capabilities match with the requirements of the open positions.

4. Be accountable. Just because you are working as a team doesn’t mean responsibilities can be shifted off to others. A cloud-based recruiting platform tracks all activities and can clearly show all the metrics to determine how the entire team has worked with each other including when each person took a certain action or completed a certain task in the system.

5. Take high quality candidates for a test drive. Once you and your team have identified the top candidates, invite them to spend a day or so in the office. Introduce them to the team and allow them to take on a project or two. This allows your whole team to get a feel for the type of worker the candidate is, how they interact with others and how well they can handle pressure, etc., before any official hiring decisions are made.

What do you think about team-based hiring? What are some other guidelines for effectively hiring using the team-based approach?

Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. We're SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.

Sajjad Masud is Co-founder & CEO of Simplicant, a cloud-based social recruiting platform transforming talent acquisition and making enterprise-level recruiting technology accessible to companies of all sizes. Connect with Sajjad and the Simplicant team at @Simplicant, on Facebook or on LinkedIn.

Recruiter.com connects employers with an extensive network
of recruiters to drive the hiring of top talent faster and smarter. We offer recruiters and independent
professionals earning and career opportunities - learn more
today.